Investing in guest houses in Lesotho
In this week's podcast we talk to Mawinnie Kanetsi from Lesotho.
This podcast is completely different to any other podcast we've done, not because our guest is from Lesotho (although that excites us because we're crossing borders), but because this guest invests in guest houses, not in residential property.
This is another take on real estate investing - Mawinnie shows us that we can go beyond residential real estate and start marrying our passion for travel with real estate and land.
Mawinnie's journey started off in 2002, when she bought a special site in Maseru to build rooms to rent. She built two 2-bedroom flats (apartments), and got tenants in to pay the rent.
Shortly thereafter she went to Harare, Zimbabwe to visit a friend and stayed at her guest house, when she was there she asked a lot of questions and learned a little about the business; when she got back to Maseru, she started thinking about opening up her own guest house.
She and her husband then converted the property into a 12 room guest house (Phomolo Guest House Matlala, Maseru). The guest house hosts short term and long term expatriates.
In 2007, she bought a guest house in Bloemfontein and turned that into student accommodation for 7 students.
In 2016, she bought a house on an estate and turned their primary home into a 7 roomed bed and breakfast. She also developed some land they'd bought and built a 6 bedroom guest house.
They have also gifted their daughter with a 3 bedroom property to run as her own AirBnB.
If ever you're in Lesotho definitely check out and stay at Mawinnie's guest houses:
- Village Court Guest House
- The Hillside Cottage Guest House
- Phomolo Guest House Matala
